Blue Rider PressBeach Boys fans who’ve haven’t read frontman Mike Love‘s 2016 memoir, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, now can buy a more portable version of the book: a paperback edition was just released.

Love tells ABC Radio he was inspired to write the memoir because he wanted to share his side of The Beach Boys’ story, and defend himself against the negative ways he’s been portrayed in some accounts of the band’s history.

“There had been so many mis-truths, misconceptions and such [a] biased way of looking at things, often by people who weren’t even there,” Love maintains. “So I thought it would be a really good idea to write about my…life’s experiences and my contribution to the group.”

As you’d expect, the book delves into both the high points and rough periods in the group’s history. Among the latter, Love says, was his late cousin Dennis Wilson‘s short-lived friendship with cult leader Charles Manson, and suing his cousin Brian Wilson over songwriting credits for many classic Beach Boys songs.

On the positive side, Love lists the 1966 single “Good Vibrations” going to #1, and The Beach Boys being voted the top group in the U.K., over The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He says another highlight was the band playing July 4 shows in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in 1985 to a combined million-and-a-half people.

Despite the personal drama, conflicts and tragedies the band has gone through, Love says The Beach Boys’ story is an overwhelmingly happy one, thanks to the joy the group’s music has brought to their fans.

“[The] warmth and character of the harmonies together has been such a huge influence and loved all around the world,” Love maintains. “It’s almost inexplicable.”